In the decades after the Civil War, public monuments to prominent Germans and German-Americans began to punctuate the urban spaces of St. Louis, Missouri. One of the grandest of these monuments celebrates Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852), founder of the Turner movement owing to his development of a systematic program of exercises known as Turnen - and by extension the "father" of modern gymnastics. Commissioned in 1913 by the St. Louis Chapter of the North American Turner Alliance, the monument is located in Forest Park, the largest and most prestigious public green space in St. Louis, occupying the former site of the German pavilion erected for the 1904 World's Fair. Today the Jahn monument stands as a visual testament to a bygone era of German power and influence in the city, and reflects the delicate balancing act required of this immigrant community as they attempted to lay claim to civic space.

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